Gnarly Barley Brewing Company in Hammond and Chafunkta Brewing Company in Mandeville collaborated on a black IPA called Black Tooth Grin, to be exclusively released during LaCBW.

Gnarly Barley co-founder Cari Caramonta says they're proud to be a part of the first production brewery collaboration in the state.

"Zac [Caramonta, of Gnarly Barley] and Josh [Erickson, of Chafunkta] met through their homebrew club, Mystic Krewe of Brew, and this is a tip of the hat to their roots."

They brewed six slim kegs of the beer that will only be available at the six LaCBW events listed on the schedule.

Baton Rouge beer blogger and writer Jay Ducote of Bite & Booze (www.biteandbooze.com) hosts the Louisiana Brewers Bash at The Irish House, an event that will feature two beers from every Louisiana brewery available in the market.

"Most brewers are showcasing a specialty brew or cask as well as a seasonal or flagship," Ducote says. "Damian Sheridan, the manager at The Irish House, suggested that we team up on an event for Louisiana Craft Brewer Week, and I loved the idea. We started working everything out with the brewers about a month ago and quickly got so much interest that we decided to feature two beers from all nine available breweries."

Jeremy "Beer Buddha" Labadie has been blogging about Louisiana craft beer for years and is the co-author of New Orleans Beer: A Hoppy History of Big Easy Brewing, released earlier this year. This year he helped organize two events with local breweries at local businesses: Redneck Romp at Squeal BBQ with Chafunkta Brewing and a beer and chicken wings pairing at Barrel Proof with Black Label Barbecue (details TBA).

The beer styles offered at this year's LaCBW are a far cry from what was available in past years. This year there are several wild/sour ales, spontaneously fermented with lactobacillus and brettanomyces, which creates sour, funky flavors that evolving palates in the Louisiana craft beer scene are beginning to appreciate.

"Can you believe it?" asks Polly Watts, owner of The Avenue Pub, which hosts several events. "Three breweries doing some kind of sour this year, barrel-aged beers are all over the place and (there is) a single hop series. How far we have come!"

5 p.m. Parish Brewing visits The Avenue Pub and taps Export Stout and a cask of Coffee Vanilla Export Stout, and there will be bottle pours of Grand Reserve Barleywine and Farmhouse IPA. Parish founder Andrew Godley will arrive at the Pub by 7 p.m.

6 p.m. Louisiana Craft Beer Brewers Bash hosted by Jay Ducote at the Irish House (1432 St. Charles Ave., 504-595-6755; www.theirishhouseneworleans.com). The brewery owners, brewmasters and representatives of the nine Louisiana breweries available in New Orleans attend the event, which features two beers from each brewery and food. Tickets and more information are available at www.biteandbooze.com.

7 p.m. The Barley Oak features a
NOLA Brewing cask of barrel-aged Hurrican Saison made with dry-hopped Galaxy hops.

Thu. Sept. 25

5 p.m. NOLA Brewing night at The Avenue Pub features two new sour releases: Piety (American sour ale with tart cherry; 100 percent fermented with lactobacillus and brettanomyces) and Lowerline (American sour ale, fermented with lactobacillus and brettanomyces). Also available on tap are barrel-aged Hurricane Saison dry hopped with Galaxy hops, Four Roses bourbon barrel-aged Irish Channel Stout, and double dry-hopped ALS IPA, which is a farmhouse-style IPA made with proprietary hop blend and saison yeast. A portion of the proceeds benefits ALS research.

6 p.m. Abita celebrates Louisiana Craft Brewer Week at Deuce McAllister's Ole Saint Kitchen and Tap (132 Royal St., 504-309-4797; www.olesaint.com) with two-for-one on all Abita beers including its new Octoberfest, the new seasonal Pecan Harvest and the new Select series Legendary Gator, a triple helles bock.

11:30 a.m. All pitchers of Louisiana-brewed beer are $2 off at the Bulldog Mid City.

1 p.m. The fifth annual New Orleans On Tap charity benefit for LA/SPCA is at the City Park Festival Grounds. New Orleans on Tap is a free family- and pet-friendly beer festival that features live music, more than 200 local and national beers, food, a homebrew competition, games and giveaways. Visit www.neworleansontap.org for tickets and information.